Britain's Prince William stands next to his wife Kate, duchess of Cambridge, in 2012. / Alastair Grant, AP

by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

LONDON - Intercepted voice-mail messages made by Prince William on the phone of his then-girlfriend - now wife - Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, have been read out to a British jury as part of a high-profile phone-hacking trial.

According to reporters at the trial, in one message William refers to Middleton as "babykins." In another, he jokes that he was almost shot - with blanks - while taking part in a military training exercise.

"Hi baby. Um, sorry, I've got back in off my night navigation exercise," the court heard William say in a message that was allegedly intercepted, according to reports from BBC journalists and others inside the courtroom.

He added: "I've been running around Aldershot chasing shadows and getting horribly lost, and I walked into some other regiment's ambush, which was slightly embarrassing because I nearly got shot."

In yet another message to his future wife, William invites Middleton to go "beagling," a reference to hunting with beagles.

The messages were made in 2006 while William was enrolled at Sandhurst military college.

The couple met in 2001 while studying at St. Andrews University and married at Westminster Abbey in 2011.

The recorded messages were found among the belongings of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who has been convicted of hacking the phones of aides to William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, for one of Murdoch's tabloids.

Ex-News of the World editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks are among seven people trial on charges related to wrongdoing at the defunct Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper.